If you're over politics, ignore all phone calls

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THE main political parties will blitz the airwaves tonight before a blackout on TV and radio advertising begins at midnight. But for weary voters there is no likely let-up as the campaign switches to the telephone, internet, newspapers and direct mail.

The ban on electronic advertising does not cover direct mail, telephone campaigning or internet advertising, which has, for the first time, been a big part of the election campaign.

Anyone in a marginal seat who wants to avoid politics might be advised to avoid the telephone until Saturday. The Liberal Party will unleash a wave of pre-recorded messages to be delivered by telephone in the next few days.

They will feature the voices of John Howard, Peter Costello, other ministers and local members. A spokesman for the Liberals said the messages were positive, and would not target mobile phones or those on the "do not call" list.

However, he said people who diverted their land lines to their mobiles might get a call.

In the last days of the campaign the Coalition and Labor have stepped up their negative advertising, saturating prime-time television.

The Liberals have intensified their attack on Labor's union connections, with an advertisement titled "They'll stuff our economy", which features footage of demonstrations and riots.

The managing director of Fusion Strategy, Steve Allen, said he believed Labor was outspending the Coalition in the final days of the campaign. The Coalition had problems "cutting through" with its advertising and it was doubtful if spending more on advertisements would make much of a difference now. Sally Young, a senior lecturer in media and communications at the University of Melbourne and author of The Persuaders: Inside the Hidden Machine of Political Advertising, said that although people often ascribed the blitz of negative advertising to an Americanisation of politics, attack ads had a long history in Australia.

In fact it was slightly unusual that Labor was still running positive ads this late in the campaign, but this was not surprising given its lead in opinion polls.

As well, Labor portrayed the Coalition as running a fear campaign, so it was difficult for Labor to use negative commercials.

She said a feature of the campaign had been the quick response of ads, including one Labor had designed specifically for Kevin Rudd's appearance on Rove.

The Liberal Party had produced television ads targeting individual candidates, and tailored its message that warns about having Labor governments at federal and all state levels.

Dr Young said most Australian political advertising, while negative, criticised opponents ove their policies, and avoided personal attacks, which were often a feature of US advertising.

Political parties are not required to disclose how much they spend on political advertising, even though it is largely financed by public funding.

At the last election one independent monitoring organisation estimated that the Liberal Party had spent $10 million on media ads, and Labor $8.7 million. Spending on direct mail and other forms of communication could easily double that figure.

Electorate returns show the main parties spent about $30million overall during the 2004 election year.

Dr Young said lack of disclosure was a big gap in the electoral accountability laws, as it was supposed to have been part of the bargain to receive public funding.

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1195321782652-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/federal-election-2007-news/if-youre-over-politics-ignore-all-phone-calls/2007/11/20/1195321782652.htmlsmh.com.auSydney Morning Herald2007-11-21If you're over politics, ignore all phone callsMark CoultanFederalElection2007FederalElection2007Newshttp://blogs.smh.com.au/federalelection/archives/2007/11/what_do_you_think_of_the_elect.htmlWhat do you think of the election campaigning?text/html-forum